Porsche (Germany)

Porsche engines are manufactured by Dr.-Ing h.c. F. Porsche K.-G., originally in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, Germany and later in Weissach, Germany. The firm is well-known, of course, for its sports and racing cars. In the 1950s, European builders of light aircraft began adapting the air-cooled Porsche horizontally-opposed auto engines to these aircraft, just as they did with the Volkswagen engines that had a similar design origin. Porsche cooperated with some of these builders by factory-built engines derived from their auto engines, whereas VW did not. Porsche built their first generation aircraft engines for about six years (1957-1963). Then, in the 1980s, Porsche again derived aircraft engines from their auto-engine family and are said to have spent $75 million dollars to do so, only to withdraw from the market in about 1991 during the downswing in aircraft sales resulting from liability issues. (See the article "Engine Development Cost", Part 1, by Douglas G. Culy, in TMW03". The Type Certificates (TC) listed below as LBA refer to certification by the Luftfahrt Bundesamt (Federal Office of Civil Aviation), the German equivalent of the FAA in the US. Certification is to the European JAR requirements. Both the Porsche factory engines and other Porsche auto engines adapted for aircraft by non-factory conversions are described below.

Non-Factory Porsche Conversions

Many more Porsche air-cooled auto engines have been converted for aircraft use by individual aircraft homebuilders and their suppliers. This is a similar situation to that of homebuilders who converted VW engines for aircraft use. The applications listed below have not been identified by their builders, but have been reported to have been used as indicated. The Porsche 356 engine data below have been obtained from the 356 Website and Pelican Parts Website.